Kirby to set up steel fabrication plant

MUMBAI: Kirby Building Systems (India), engaged in pre-engineered buildings (PEBs) manufacturing, on Thursday said it is planning to set up another steel fabrication plant, its third in India, in the western region at an estimated investment of Rs 100 crore.

Owned by Kuwait's largest private sector player Alghanim Industries, KBS (I) has two plants in Hardwar and Hyderabad with a cumulative fabrication capacity of two lakh tonnes a year.

The parent company Kirby Building Systems, headquartered in Kuwait, has two plants in Kuwait and UAE with a total capacity of 1.5 lakh tonnes. It is also putting up a greenfield plant in Vietnam with a capacity of 50,000 tonnes.

"We are mulling a third plant in India and this time it will come up somewhere in the western part of the country," Kirby's Managing Director P K Tandon told reporters here.

The plant would have an annual steel fabrication capacity of 1.25 lakh tonnes, a ditto of its Hyderabad facility, and would require over Rs 100 crore investment. "We propose to put up the plant in two phases. We are, however, yet to finalise on the location," he said.

Tandon claimed KBS (I) holds around 50 per cent of India's total PEB capacity and the demand for such structures are growing by over 20 per cent annually. Kirby hopes to generate $500 million turnover in 2008, up from $300 million in 2006, he said. "Almost half of the projected turnover will come from India," Tandon said.